Colour Me In
by Dusthawthorn
Summary: Percy had been waiting his whole life to see colour after meeting his soulmate. How it happened wasn't at all like he expected.


Percy was five when he first asked his mother about colour. He had heard Thalia talking about it to Jason and asked his mother what it was.

"It's what you see when you meet your soulmate." She had explained.

He asked her what a soulmate was.

"It's the person who fits you perfectly. The person who you are made for, who makes you better and who you make better because together you're complete. They make the world more real, brighter for you and you them."

He wondered why she didn't have one.

"I do. Your dad. But he died."

Did she see colour when she met him?

"Yes"

Did she still see colour?

"Yes, but it dulled a bit after he died."

How did she know it was colour?

"It starts with their eyes," she told him, "First, before you see anything else, you see the colour of their eyes. You can't describe seeing your first colour or how you know what it is. You just know."

He asked what colour his eyes were.

"Green," she said, "just like your Father. You're the only thing coloured-in bright for me anymore."

He asked what hers were.

"Blue."

He said he didn't understand.

She just smiled, "When you meet her, you'll know."

One day when Percy was six, he suddenly became inexplicably angry. His mother thought that he was just in a mood. But then it lasted the next day, and the next. Then the anger turned to sadness which lasted for days. Neither of them understood what happened, because Percy had always been a generally happy-go-lucky child.

They went to the doctor.

"Oh," the doctor didn't look worried at all as he explained, "It's your soulmate. You see some cases in soulmates sometimes that when one is strongly affected by something, the other gets affected too."

Percy's mother looked alarmed and asked if it happened often.

Rarely, said the doctor, but it wouldn't be life threatening.

"Some soulmates are just more strongly connected than others. We don't know why." He explained.

Percy and his mother walked out of the clinic at a loss. Percy wondered if his soulmate would be okay.

"I hope so sweetheart, but I don't know."

Percy hoped that his soulmate couldn't feel it when he was scared of their landlord Gabe. He wouldn't want her to feel the bad stuff. Just the good stuff.

His mother smiled sadly at him, "It will be worth it when you meet her. You'll love her so much, nothing else will matter."

Percy couldn't see how he could love his soulmate more than his Mom.

"It's a different kind of love." She said.

He asked her how it was different.

"It's like different shades of the same colour."

He didn't understand.

She smiled and just said, "When you meet her, you'll know."

Percy was seven when his older cousin Thalia met her soulmate, Luke.

Jason, Thalia's little brother, had come over to Percy's place to get out of their way.

"They keep talking about blues and reds and yellows and I don't know how many other weird names." He had said.

"Apparently, according to Luke. Thalia and I have the same blue eyes." Jason informed Percy.

Percy asked what colour Luke's eyes were.

"Thalia says blue."

So Luke had the same eyes and the two of them too.

"No. Thalia says they're different."

How could there be different blues?

Jason shrugged.

Percy later asked his mom.

"It's like different loves; remember how I told you that."

He did but it didn't help.

"It's like the difference between octaves in music." She explained.

"Two different C's can be lower or higher. Colour is a bit like that. Or the difference between the sound of the sky and the sea. They both sound wide strong and powerful, but you can hear the difference."

She laughed, "Both blue too!"

He looked at his mother's eyes, trying to see the sky in them.

He asked what green looked like, if blue was the sky and the sea.

She smiled and gazed out the window to the street below.

"Green isn't something we see a lot of in the city." She sighed wistfully, "Green is fresh, and cool, and deep. Like grass, or grapes, or frogs, or the ocean."

But he thought the ocean was blue.

"Yes, but it's green too."

Percy didn't understand.

"There are more shades of green or blue then there are between black and whiite."

 **Impossible.**

His mother laughed, "When you meet her, you'll know."

Percy was twelve and Grover was the first of Percy's close friends to meet his soul mate.

He was a few years older, so it wasn't unexpected. Although some people didn't meet their soulmates for YEARS and YEARS. Percy hoped he was average enough to fall into the middle of the bell curve of meeting their soulmate. Late teens or early twenties. He certainly hadn't been one of the lucky few who had met their soul mate young like his cousin Thalia. She had met Luke when she was twelve. TWELVE! They pretty much got through middle school and high school together!

But with his timing, he would be one of the last.

All Percy knew was that one day, Grover had come to school, beaming from ear to ear, walking with a confidence he had never had before.

Percy didn't need to ask.

"Her name is Juniper." Grover had announced, and he commenced describing her from the tips of her hair to her toes.

Percy thought it was weird she was named after a bush, but Grover just laughed and said that she was perfect.

When Percy asked him what colour her eyes were, what his first colour was, Grover had gotten a dreamy look on his face.

"Green."

Percy blinked at Grover. What. Like his?

"No hers are lighter, like new leaves in spring. Yours are like, dark, like...like zucchini."

Percy laughed. Great, he had vegetable eyes. How would Grover know anyway? He just met his soulmate yesterday! He didn't even know all the colours.

Grover shrugged, "I dunno I just do. When you meet her, you'll know."

Percy was sixteen when Jason met Piper. He also nearly crashed his stepfather's car because of it.

Percy, Jason and Grover were driving to Thalia's wedding. Jason was unsuccessfully trying to get his tie on correctly.

"Damn it! Couldn't she just have gotten those fake, clip-on ones for us?"

Percy didn't think it was necessary to answer.

After much huffing and puffing, Jason finally gave up and sighed in defeat leaning his head on the window, gazing blankly at the passing scenery.

Percy opened his mouth to console Jason with the fact that, at least no one would be looking at him, it was his sister's wedding after all, not his own.

Jason let out a cry and swore, grabbing on to Percy's arm, making everyone jump.

"PERCY! STOP THE CAR!"

Percy hit the brakes so hard he nearly gave everyone whiplash.

All consolatory thought gone from his mind, he spun round to give Jason an earful when he saw the expression on his cousin's face.

Jason was frozen, with a dazed and slightly euphoric look washing over his face.

Out on the sidewalk, looking equally dazed as Jason, was a dark skinned, irregularly choppy-haired girl about their age.

Jason wrenched open the door and stumbled out of the car before anyone could say anything.

The girl, they noticed now, was not alone. Next to her was a short boy with curly dark hair. He was looking between Jason and the girl with a mix of astonishment and wariness.

"Do we go with them?" Grover asked Percy, hesitantly.

Percy shrugged and parked the car properly before getting out and walking back to the newly met soulmates.

In the end they took Jason's soulmate (Piper) and her best friend (Leo) with them to the wedding.

Luckily, Aunt Aphrodite always had spares of all sorts of outfits so she whipped up something for the ring-in pair. Percy thought that Piper got the raw end of the deal. Meet your soulmate and meet his family, ALL THE FAMILY, all in one go. Though she seemed too entranced by Jason to care.

Leo, Percy discovered, was a bigger goofball than he was. It didn't seem to faze him that he knew no one at the wedding and nothing stopped him from flirting shamelessly with Thalia (the bride!), Percy's cousins Bianca and Hazel, and even Percy's stoic friend Reyna.

Percy asked him what his soulmate was going to think if she saw what he was doing with all these other girls. To his surprise, Leo looked immensely saddened by this.

"She knows I'm just kidding," he answered, "She knows it's my way of joking around till I can get back to her."

Percy was silent for a while, digesting that LEO VALDEZ of all people, had already found his soul mate. After a while he asked what colour her eyes were.

"Brown," said Leo wistfully, "a light caramel brown that makes you think of sugar, and spice and home fires and soft lullabies."

Percy was itching to ask him about her, how they met, why they couldn't be together, but Leo looked so miserable that he asked him if he could come help him in the kitchen instead. Leo's relief was so tangible that Percy dared to ask the impertinent question of his soulmate's name.

"Calypso." Leo pronounced it like it was the answer to life, "Her name is Calypso."

When Percy was seventeen, his soulmate had a spike of euphoria that lasted for days.

Not that he minded, he was cheerful most of the time anyway, but his friends were starting to find his random bouts of grinning really weird.

He hadn't thought of it a lot, this emotional connection with his soulmate, but apart from the odd flare of annoyance (it seemed that his soulmate didn't have many bouts of intense happiness), he hadn't felt much from her since he was six.

"I bet she got into college." Said Jason sagely when Percy mentioned the reason for his happiness, "Thal's was grinning non-stop when Luke got into the business course he had been wanting."

Percy hoped his soul mate didn't mind that he had possibly the lowest GPA in his school. His mom said that his soulmate would love him whatever his GPA was...

Still...

He hadn't been accepted into anything yet and it kind of worried him. He knew that he had more options than the naval engineering courses he had applied for, but that didn't stop him wanting to show the world that he did have a brain despite evidence to the contrary.

If she was smart, he would be insanely proud of her.

He wondered if she could feel his immense hate for anything school related. He would hate for her to be embarrassed by him.

Piper, surprisingly, was the one to sooth him, "She _will_ be embarrassed, but it won't matter."

Jason had snorted at this, "Gee Pipes, way to be consoling."

Piper ignored him, focusing on Percy, "Honestly Perce, She won't care if you were a street sweeper, she'd love you just the same. And there is nothing wrong with being a street sweeper!" She turned glaring to Jason who was laughing.

Jason smirked at him, "With your luck, Perce, you'll end up with a valedictorian or something."

Percy laughed. Yeah right.

In Percy's first year of uni, he didn't mean to crash Paul's car. And anyway, it wasn't his fault.

It had honestly been sunny when he left home for uni on his first day back after winter break. Twenty minutes later, he couldn't see for all the snow that had come out of nowhere.

And he promised he was totally stopped at the top (red) light when the other car came sliding across the ice at 100km/h.

Apart from that, he couldn't have told you anything about what happened because he was unconscious for the next four days.

The first thing Percy realised when he came too was that his eyelids felt far too heavy for him have been simply asleep.

The second thing he thought was that his throat was dry as sandpaper.

The third was that EVERYTHING ACHED.

Then he started to hear things. The slow beeping of a machine next to him (was he in hospital?), the footsteps of people in the corridors, his mother's voice somewhere above him.

His mother!

He wrenched his eyes open and drank in the sight of her worried and pale face.

"Percy!" She gasped out and drew closer to him, cupping his face in her hands reassuring both of them that he was there and okay.

Percy had only a short moment to revel in his mother's calming presence before, to his surprise, she called out to someone at the door.

"Annabeth! He's awake!"

Percy should have guessed what was happening when he felt a thrill of panic run through him.

He should have guessed, because the panic he felt _didn't belong to him_. It was _hers._

He should have known what it meant, he should have thought to prepare himself.

But all he could think of when a slight figure appeared at the door was _greygreygrey_ because that's all he could see, but it wasn't enough because it wasn't just grey. It was _blue and silver and soft-clouds and stars and moon and sharp-steel and deep and rain and lightning-flashes_ all at once and just so much _more_ than the grey that he knew to be between white and black.

And suddenly the grey was surrounded by gold curls and tan skin and an orange shirt and blue jeans and he could _see._

And he gasped.

And she gasped too.

Then, even though it ached, he laughed, a dry, scratchy laugh, but a full one.

Of all the way's he could have met her, this was not what he had ever envisaged.

But it was her and nothing else mattered.

"You drool in your sleep." Were the first words she said to him. Her grey(!) eyes alight with laughter, a smirk on her face. Her expression told him she couldn't believe this was really happening but she was delighted nonetheless.

Her name was Annabeth Chase.

She was his soulmate.

She was the one who ran the red light straight into his stationary car and landed him in hospital.

His soulmate was a literal knockout.

He found this fact extremely funny, and she rolled her beautiful eyes, but he knew (how did he know?) That she was actually a little embarrassed by this.

She, like him, had been trying to get back into uni after spring break when she had lost control of the car on black ice and...well the rest was history.

She had come out of the accident unscathed but guilt ridden and had stuck around the hospital with his mom for the next few days because she had wanted apologise and to make sure he was okay.

She was just as surprised as he was to find out that they were soulmates.

"Soo...do we plan a wedding now or what?" She asked him. Her fingers tentatively playing with his as she sat next to his hospital bed, holding his hand. They had quickly established that physical contact between them was extremely comforting. Like now that they had found each other, they just had to hold on just in case it wasn't real.

Percy shrugged but he couldn't stop smiling. She was here! She was his and they had forever to know each other.

He thought it was too good to be true.

Being bed ridden gave Percy the perfect excuse to just watch her as they talked.

And they talked about everything and nothing because they could, because there was something amazing about knowing that this other was made for you and you alone and that they wouldn't judge or belittle what you said because they wanted to know you, all of you. (Although teasing was fair game, and they both did a lot of that)

She told him about how she was studying architecture at NYU, how she was originally from San Fransisco but didn't have the best relationship with her family so had lived most of her life in New York with a family friend Chiron. She spent her summers volunteering at a summer camp for kids with learning difficulties and she _had_ been valedictorian of her graduating class. (Jason would preen when he found out.) They were born in the same year except she was about a month older than him.

She told him she hated spiders and disorder and repetitive pop songs. That she loved chocolate, and books and Chopin. That her favourite colour was green (no need to guess why) and that her idol was Antonio Gaudi.

She apologised in advance because she was a perfectionist and hard to please, but told him not to take it personally... Mostly.

He laughed at that. He laughed at a lot of it actually (especially the spider part) but he had never felt so light before (although that could have been the painkillers) and he told her so.

She had mock punched him, but blushed all the same.

She got on with his mom like a house on fire, which Percy thought was the best thing ever. And she didn't bag him out when his mom brought him a blue hamburger for his lunch that day. Which he could finally see! Although she did ask for an explanation.

So he told her about Smelly Gabe who didn't believe in blue food but his mom, who was amazing went all out to prove him wrong. And he told her how he would never admit to anyone else how much Smelly Gabe used to terrify him because of what he would do to his mom and to him if he didn't get the rent, or didn't get what he wanted full stop. And he told her how his Mom knew, every time, how to make things ok, and bearable and even end up happy and hopeful and blue food was just the beginning of it.

She looked pained after that and Percy busied himself with his hamburger, not meeting her gaze, feeling suddenly like he had said too much and that she would pity him.

He was down to his last inch of burger when she spoke again.

"I ran away from home when I was seven because I thought my dad didn't want me. Did you feel that back then?" She asked softly.

He looked into her fierce grey eyes and nodded.

"Because," she continued, "I think I felt it every time Gabe came after you."

He must have looked panicked because she quickly tried to reassure him.

"No! It's ok, I used to hate that you were scared but I felt it every time your Mom looked after you too. So.. Thanks... I guess... I used to love the feeling of you feeling loved... Because I didn't have that... Does that make sense?"

He understood, but he apologised anyway.

She grinned ruefully, "Me too I guess, my feelings probably weren't the greatest most of the time."

Percy laughed and agreed, but promised it didn't matter, because he had the whole rest of their lives to make it up to her.

She laughed too and Percy felt a spike of warmth and fondness from her and he thought he could definitely get used to this.

Then she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek and he was sure she was laughing because she had felt his shock.

Later, after they had already had their first date, first kiss, first fight (cause even soul mates fight sometimes) first make up...Annabeth told him how she had been disappointed when she saw the colour of her own eyes.

Percy didn't understand.

"Well, they were the same as before. Grey isn't really a colour is it?" She explained, frowning a little.

Percy looked at her seriously, taking in every aspect of the eyes in question.

He asked her if she remembered learning about white light and refraction in school.

"Yeah, like in 3rd Grade. Why?"

Percy's smile was soft and bright at the same time as he found his way around his thoughts.

Annabeth's eyes were like that light. Bright and full of colour, ALL the colours. And to split them would have been to take away something of it. But at the same time it had to be shaded, or it would be blinding. Her grey was every colour ever made, but with a slight shade, so one could look at it straight on and marvel and not have to turn away.

After this appraisal, Annabeth gaped, a little dumbfounded at him before ducking her head and trying to hide her blush.

"You really know how to charm a girl Percy."

He pretended to agree, but he was sure it was only her.

Percy was 20 when he realised he would never get used to being able to see colour. He also realised he would never get used to being with Annabeth.

At the same time, he couldn't imagine being without her. Just the thought of it terrified him.

So he bought a ring.

Just a simple band of white gold with a diamond set smoothly into the band.

If he held it just so, he could bounce the light around in the room, splitting a ray into a myriad of colour.

It was _perfect_.

He hoped Annabeth didn't get to curious as to why he was so excited, and terrified at the same time.

Percy was really glad that there was a sure fire way for soul mates to recognise each other, because, if left to himself, he knew he would never have half the courage to even speak to Annabeth let alone kiss her.

The idea at he was even allowed to, or even _meant_ to make him dizzy. He had won the lottery of the fates that was for sure.

So part of him wasn't so surprised when he stuffed up his proposal.

He had planned to take her out on a nice, elegant date at a nice, elegant restaurant that she loved and maybe walk along their favourite park and possibly (since he knew it was going to be a fine night with a clear sky and a full moon) he'd propose by the moonlit riverside on one of their favourite spots.

And it started out fine. He was on time to pick her up (for once) and had bought her a bunch of gerberas (because she thought roses were too cheesy) and hasn't tripped over when he had seen how amazingly gorgeous she was. They made it to the restaurant without a problem, he even made it through the first course without a problem.

It wasn't until dessert that it fell apart.

Halfway through his strawberry cheesecake (although, Percy was so nervous that he couldn't really taste anything) there was a commotion a few tables away from him as a gentleman about his age got down on one knee and proposed to his crying and nodding soulmate.

There was a flurry of congratulations and cheers as the other patrons of the restaurant witnessed the scene, but Percy just felt sick to his stomach. A couple of hours and that could be him… Well, provided that she say yes… She was his soulmate, so it wasn't like she would say no, right?

"Percy?"

Annabeth brought him out of his reverie waving a hand in front of his face, a faint smile on her own.

"I thought I'd lost you in space for a sec." She teased.

Percy assured her that he was very much present on earth.

Annabeth raised her eyebrow in scepticism but left off to nod at the newly engaged couple.

"As happy as I am for them, I hate public proposals." She announced.

Percy nearly choked on his tasteless cheesecake.

"I mean there's nothing wrong with them per se," she continued, "but… I dunno… I feel it should be a private, intimate affair you know?"

Percy hummed and haaad and agreed eventually, hurriedly walking through his planned route in his mind to check if it was private enough to fit the bill.

"I recon a proposal should be made only when both parties have no doubt that it's the right and stable course of action." She was saying in the business-like manner that she was wont to put on when voicing her opinion.

"I mean obviously, the couple should talk about marriage first and discuss all the plans for the future, children, place of residence, family arrangements for major holidays etc. all that should be at least touched on before a hint of a proposal. They should be ready for the rest of their lives. It's a given for most people… Percy? Are you okay?"

Annabeth had finally noticed Percy's growing panic and despite his assurances that he was fine, his cracking voice and shaking hands gave him away.

"Percy? You look terrible! Let me call-"

But Percy had stood up and mumbled something about needing some air. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out his handkerchief (because to his embarrassment he had broken out in a cold sweat) he realised too late that it was the pocket with the ring in it.

And he felt more than watched the box slip out and head to the ground

 _In_

 _Slow_

 _Motion_

Till it hit the polished floor

and popped open

And the ring rolled out.

There was a stunned silence as Annabeth and Percy both looked at the ring in shock.

They then looked at each other in shock.

"You bought a ring." She eventually said.

Percy found feeling return to his limbs and he scooped the ring and box up and shoved them unceremoniously back into his pocket as he started to apologise.

Annabeth held a finger up for silence, to which Percy happily complied and sat back down to await his fate.

"You bought a ring." She stated again.

He nodded.

"You were planning to propose."

He nodded again, his stomach sinking.

"You were planning to propose tonight."

He nodded once more.

"Right here."

To his relief (although he wasn't sure why he was relieved) Percy shook his head.

"You weren't?"

Percy found himself launching into an explanation about the moonlit walk and the spot by the river.

A small part of him clung to a small hope that maybe the night could finish as planned and maybe by the time they made it down there, she might change her mind about the pre-proposal-preparation discussion.

Or maybe they could have the discussion on the way.

Whatever worked.

"By the river." She clarified

He nodded.

"When it's 5 degrees outside."

His hope shrank to sub atomic particles.

He didn't even nod.

Annabeth nodded curtly for him and stood up startling Percy to stare at her in confusion.

"Take me home please." Was all she said and Percy sighed as he got up. He knew better than to question that tone, and he wordlessly followed her out the door.

Later that night, after he had dropped Annabeth off at her apartment. Percy was lying on top of his bed still in his dress pants and shirt although his tie and jacket had been discarded over his desk and his shirt had come untucked and sleeves rolled to the elbow, hair in disarray.

He was holding the ring in between his fingers, shining his mobile flashlight through the diamond, flicking it in and off.

The refracted light bounced rainbows across his darkened room.

 _On_

 **Off**

 _On_

 **Off**

 _Coloured walls_

 **Black walls**

 _Colour_

 **Black**

Soul mates didn't often break up once they found each other. The only separation was normally death. You heard of cases of infidelity but those were extreme, because who in their right mind wants to cheat on their _soulmate_.

He knew Annabeth just needed to get over the shock. (She hated rushing into things and surprises were annoying for her) and he wondered why he thought it would be a good idea to surprise her in the first place.

Finding your soul mate sure didn't mean it was easy.

 _Colour_

Percy wondered what it would be like for those unfortunate few who didn't have soulmates. His stepfather, Paul wasn't his moms soulmate, so consequently he still saw in black and white.

 **Black**

 _Colour_

He wondered what it would be like to resign yourself to such a limited view of the world.

 **Black**

 _Colour_

It would be awful. But he supposed there were worse things. He would rather have a life with no colour than a life without Annabeth.

 **Black**

"What are you doing?"

In shock Percy fell off his bed and the ring from his hand as he spun around to find Annabeth standing in he doorway.

He hadn't heard her come in. She had her own key to his apartment so that wasn't a surprise, but he hadn't expected to see her again so soon after… Well…the debacle.

She had changed into blue jeans and her favourite orange t-shirt. Her blonde hair was down from its elegant bun of earlier and her make up removed.

She looked beautiful.

Rolling her eyes at his stunned expression and picking up the ring that had made its way towards her, she reiterated her question

Percy hastily stood up and held his hand out to take it back from her whilst unabashedly admitting to musing about _her_ and how she had brought much more than colour into his life. What was _she_ doing here thank you very much.

Annabeth's eyebrows went up into her hair in surprise and Percy felt a surge of triumphant glee at the blush that rose to her cheeks and the small embarrassed but pleased smile she tried and failed to contain.

There was a moment of silence before she strode across the room and Percy only had time to take in the fierce expression in her storm cloud eyes before those same eyes were inches from his.

She paused just a fraction before looking down at the ring in her hand and sliding it onto her finger and taking his face in her hands and her storm clouds softened to a morning mist and she was smiling.

Percy felt a thrill of exhilaration at the touch of the cool metal on her finger.

"I came to say yes." She whispered and he wasn't sure whose happiness he could feel more before she brought her lips to his.

Although he guessed it was same now.

 _Colour_


End file.
